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Tools and techniques to advance behavioural science, including the behaviour change wheel, the COM-B model, the behaviour change technique taxonomy, the APEASE criteria and ontologies.
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Behavioural Research Guides | Behaviour Change Techniques & Tools | Research Tools | Ontologies | AI |
Behavioural science
- What is behavioural science? (video)
Behavioural science is not just 'behavioural economics' or 'nudge theory'. Find out more in this video by CBC Associate Professor Robert West. (June 2022)
- The science of behaviour change (video)
In this video recording of an event by the Royal Institution, Prof Susan Michie (CBC Director) explains how understanding how people make decisions can help us design interventions that encourage people to change behaviour in ways that are beneficial to them. (September 2019).
- Who is doing behavioural research in the UK and where? (map)
Behavioural Research UK (BR-UK), a research consortium funded by the ESRC and made up of university and government partners including the CBC, have created an interactive map of organisations that engage in behavioural research. (September 2024)
- Unlocking Behaviour Change (podcast)
Hosted by CBC Associate Prof Robert West and writer and musician Jamie West, this new podcast explores the psychology behind behaviour change. The first two episodes unpack how we make decisions - and how we might do it better. (May 2025)
Behavioural Research Guides
- Achieving Behaviour Change (ABC) Guides
These guides provide a framework for understanding behaviour in its context and developing interventions and policies to change behaviour. Access the ABC guides
A webinar was held when the guides were launched, which you can watch on YouTube.
The guides were commissioned by Public Health England’s Behavioural Insights team.
- Research engagement with policy makers: A practical guide to writing policy briefs
This guide has been developed to support researchers to write effective policy briefs to inform the development or implementation of policy. Whilst the guide has been written primarily for a UK audience, it is hoped that it will be useful to researchers in other countries.
This guide was produced as part of the NIHR Policy Research Unit (PRU) in Behavioural and Social Sciences.
- Improving health and wellbeing: A guide to using behavioural science in policy and practice
The guide focuses on behaviours in a range of policy areas, that directly or indirectly influence human health and wellbeing, such as substance use, diet, physical exercise and injury prevention, behaviours that affect environmental sustainability, antisocial behaviours and pro-social behaviours. Access the guide
Behaviour Change Techniques & Tools
Defining and selecting behaviours to change
The Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW)
From behavioural diagnosis to intervention design
The BCW was developed from 19 frameworks of behaviour change identified in a systematic literature review. It consists of three layers.
The hub identifies the sources of the behaviour that could prove fruitful targets for intervention. It uses the COM-B ('capability', 'opportunity', 'motivation' and 'behaviour') model. This model recognises that behaviour is part of an interacting system involving all these components. Interventions need to change one or more of them in such a way as to put the system into a new configuration and minimise the risk of it reverting.
Surrounding the hub is a layer of nine intervention functions to choose from based on the particular COM-B analysis one has undertaken.
The outer layer, the rim of the wheel, identifies seven policy categories that can support the delivery of these intervention functions.
The BCW provides a systematic way of identifying relevant intervention functions and policy categories based on what is understood about the target behaviour. General intervention functions can be translated into specific techniques for changing behaviour, through using the behaviour change technique taxonomy.
Find out more on the BCW website, where you can also order the book 'The Behaviour Change Wheel: A Guide to Designing Interventions'.
The COM-B model of behaviour
Once a target behaviour has been identified, the next step in the BCW process is to understand the influences underlying its performance. COM-B is a simple model of behaviour which shows that people must have Capability, Opportunity and Motivation to perform a behaviour. A COM-B diagnosis involves identifying what needs to change in a person’s capability, opportunity, and/or motivation in order to perform the behaviour. This could be done through surveys, interviews, and focus groups. You can read more about COM-B in this paper.
Selecting behaviour change techniques
Work at the Centre for Behaviour Change has identified 93 Behaviour change techniques (BCTs). BCTs can be used on their own or in combination with each other. Most interventions to change behaviour contain more than one BCT.
We have developed the following tools for identifying relevant BCTs that would be suitable for including in a particular type of intervention:
Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy (BCTT)
The BCTT is a taxonomy of 93 distinct BCT’s with labels, definitions and examples. BCTT offers a reliable method for specifying, interpreting and implementing the active ingredients of interventions to change behaviours that can be used by researchers and practitioners communities. Its development was funded by the Medical Research Council. View the BCTT mapping table.
BCTTv1 App
A mobile app version of the taxonomy is freely available to allow more flexible use of the BCTT. As well as listing all 93 BCTs with their definitions and examples, the App also allows users to search for the most frequently used BCTs for each Intervention Type. Download the app from the Apple Store or Google Play.
Evaluating an idea for an intervention
APEASE criteria
APEASE is a checklist of six criteria which can be used to evaluate the appropriateness of potential intervention types and policy options. It stands for:
- Acceptability; how far an intervention or some part or aspect of it is or is likely to be liked or engaged with.
- Practicability; how far an intervention or part of an intervention can or is likely to be able to be delivered as planned and at the scale intended.
- Effectiveness; how far an intervention or part of an intervention achieves or is likely to achieve a desired outcome and provides value for money.
- Affordability; how far an intervention or part of an intervention can or is likely to be implemented within an available budget.
- Spillover effects; how far an intervention or part of an intervention has or is likely to have unintended positive or negative effects.
- Equity; how far an intervention or part of an intervention affects or is likely to affect inequalities.
Research Tools
- Involving young people in research (paper)
This paper (lead author: Rachel Perowne, PhD student, CBC) provides a practical resource for researchers considering involving young people in the research process, and suggests what data should be collected to improve reporting on the diversity of the young people involved. (June 2024)
- CONSORT Guidelines: recommendations for reporting randomized controlled trials
Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT), encompasses various initiatives developed by the CONSORT Group to alleviate the problems arising from inadequate reporting of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The main product of CONSORT is the CONSORT Statement, which is an evidence-based, minimum set of recommendations for reporting RCTs. It offers a standard way for authors to prepare reports of trial findings, facilitating their complete and transparent reporting, and aiding their critical appraisal and interpretation. (April 2025)
- Better reporting of interventions: Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist and guide
Without a complete published description of interventions, clinicians and patients cannot reliably implement interventions that are shown to be useful, and other researchers cannot replicate or build on research findings. The quality of description of interventions in publications, however, is remarkably poor. To improve the completeness of reporting, and ultimately the replicability, of interventions, an international group of experts and stakeholders developed the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist and guide. (March 2014)
Ontologies
Ontologies can be used to synthesise evidence, link data sets and predict intervention outcomes in novel scenarios. The following tools and resources have been developed to support with this.
- What are ontologies and how are they useful in behavioural science? (video)
Prof Susan Michie gave a plenary talk at the IBTN Conference in Montreal, which took place in May 2024. The presentation was part of the session on 'Use Of Ontologies In Behavioural Intervention Development And Testing'. (October 2024)
- Tools and online resources on ontologies and the Behaviour Change Intervention Ontology (website)
The HBCP / Apricot website allows users to learn more about the CBC's work in ontologies, access resources and open-source tools, get training, watch webinars, and much more. (ongoing)
The Behaviour Change Intervention Ontology (BCIO) aims to organise information about behaviour change interventions, their contexts and evaluations. The BCIO website provides information about the BCIO, explains how to use and contribute to the BCIO, and allows users to search and visualise the BCIO using online, open-access tools. There is also an online training resource on the website.
- The Paper Authoring Tool: writing reports so that they are computer-readable (tool)
The Paper Authoring Tool is an online tool for writing reports of randomised trials that ensures all the relevant information is included and specified in a way that allows for comparison across studies. It provides a facility to specify information using ontologies such as the Behaviour Change Intervention Ontology so that it is computer-readable. (ongoing)
- The Outcome Prediction Tool: for behavioural prediction (tool)
The Outcome Prediction tool uses semantically-enhanced Machine Learning to predict smoking cessation rates in scenarios specified by users. (ongoing)
- The HBCP Study Findings & Research Browser tools (tool)
The HBCP Study Findings and Research Browser tools aim to 1) To find relevant studies in a given area and, 2) where study reports have had detailed information extracted using the BCIO, to search for studies using that information. (ongoing)
Artificial intelligence
- AI and the future of behavioural science (video)
Prof Susan Michie (CBC Director) and Prof Robert West (CBC Associate) took part in this panel event at LSE. Watch the recording on YouTube. (October 2024)
- Artificial Intelligence in Public Health Decisions (tool)
This toolkit contains a set of resources to support people to critically question the use of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system. The resources can be used to help people decide how much they want public health decision makers to trust an AI system. (September 2021)